Iran is one of the most successful national teams in Asia with three Asian Cup championships (1968, 1972, and 1976). Iran has qualified for the World Cup four times (1978, 1998, 2006, and 2014) but has never advanced past the group stage. Iran's only win in the World Cup has been a 2–1 victory against the United States in 1998.

The first match that Team Melli played was on 23 August 1941, away at Kabul in a 1–0 win against British India, while Iran's first FIFA international match was on 25 August 1941, away at Afghanistan.[6] Iran won the Asian Cup three consecutive times (1968, 1972, 1976), to which the team has not been able to add since.

After the 1979 Revolution, football was somewhat neglected and cast aside. During the 1980s, the Iranian national team did not feature in World Cup competitions due to the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88) and domestic football suffered the inevitable effects of conflict. The national team withdrew from the Asian qualifiers for the 1982 World Cup, and refused to participate in the qualifiers for the 1986 World Cup because of having to play on neutral ground. The war and political upheavals left Iran without major club competitions until 1989 when the Qods League was established. A year later, the Qods League was renamed the Azadegan League. Despite failing to qualify for either the 1990 or the 1994 World Cups, it was during this period that a number of quality players burst onto the Iranian football scene, laying the foundation for third place in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup (memorable victories in that tournament included a 3–0 victory against Saudi Arabia and an impressive 6–2 victory against South Korea) and their second stab at World Cup glory in 1998.[14]

In November 1997, Iran qualified for the 1998 World Cup after eliminating Australia in a close playoff series. Both games finished undecided, but Iran managed to qualify due to the away goals rule. Iran held Australia to a 1–1 draw at home, and a 2–2 draw in Melbourne; however, since Iran had scored more away goals, they were able to qualify for the Cup.[15]

At their first game of the Group F at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Iran played well against Yugoslavia, losing narrowly 1–0, only to a free kick goal by Siniša Mihajlović.[14] Iran recorded their first World Cup victory in the second game,[13] beating the United States 2–1, with Hamid Estili and Mehdi Mahdavikia scoring goals for Iran. The Iran vs USA World Cup match was preheated with much excitement because of each country's political stance after the Iranian revolution and the Iran hostage crisis. However, in an act of defiance against all forms of hatred or politics in sports, both sides presented one another with gifts and flowers and took ceremonial pictures before the match kickoff.[16] Following defeat against Iran, the United States was eliminated from the World Cup.[17]

After qualifying to the Asian Cup 2004, Iran was drawn with Thailand, Oman, and Japan in the tournament. Iran finished second in this group. In quarter-final clash against South Korea, Iran won 4–3 in normal time. In the semi-final, Iran lost to the host, China on penalty kicks. Iran won against Bahrain 4–2 to finish third place in the tournament.

On 8 June 2005, Iran together with Japan became the first country to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, making it Iran's 3rd appearance on the world stage of football. The qualification round both in 2001 and 2004–05 resulted in mass celebrations, hysteria and rioting, causing internal chaos and unrest between youth and government officials. The Iran versus Japan leg of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers in Tehran, played on 24 March 2005, was the highest attended qualifying match among all confederations. The match ended in tragedy with 5 fans killed and several others injured as they left the Azadi Stadium at the end of the match.[20]

Iran started their 2006 FIFA World Cup appearance with high expectations from fans and media. Their first match was against Mexico in Group D. The game was level 1–1 at the half-time, but Iran lost at the end because of a defensive mistake. The final score, 3–1, was brought about by goals from Omar Bravo and Zinha for Mexico, with Yahya Golmohammadi scoring the only Iran goal.

Iran played against Portugal in the second game. The game was lost 2–0. The goals were scored by Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo (penalty). The two losses meant Iran was eliminated from the competition, before their third and final game against Angola. Iran drew 1–1 with Angola on the 21 June 2006, Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh scoring the Iran goal.

In November 2006, Iran was suspended by FIFA from all participation in international football, on the grounds of governmental interference in the national football association.[21] The ban lasted less than a month,[22] and as a dispensation was given to allow the Iran under-23 team to participate in the football competition of the 2006 Asian Games,[23] fixtures were unaffected.

IRIFF appointed Amir Ghalenoei as head coach of the Iran national football team on 17 July 2006 to succeed Branko Ivanković. After finishing first in the qualifying round 2 points ahead of South Korea and then finishing first in the group stage of the final tournament in Malaysia, Iran lost to South Korea in a penalty shoot-out of the quarterfinal match and was eliminated from the 2007 Asian Cup. Ghalenoei was heavily criticized by the press. After a period of discussion in the Iranian football federation, his contract was not renewed and Team Melli was left with a caretaker manager for several months.

Ali Daei was chosen to become the new coach after Spanish coach Javier Clemente had been close to signing on as Iran's national team manager but talks collapsed when he refused to live full-time in the country.[24] Iran was in the same FIFA World Cup qualifying group as Kuwait, Syria and United Arab Emirates in the third round. They played home and away against each of the other three teams in group 5. In the middle of the fourth round, Ali Daei was let go from his position as the Iranian national coach on 29 March 2009.[25] He was replaced by Afshin Ghotbi. Iran failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup after ranking 4th overall in its group.[26]

In the opening match of the tournament on June 16, Iran drew Nigeria 0–0, making it their first clean sheet of the FIFA World Cup.[38] In their next match, Iran was defeated by Argentina 1–0 with a late goal from Lionel Messi, and received praise after holding Argentina for 90 minutes while creating some attacking opportunities of their own.[39] Iran was eliminated from the tournament in their next game, a 3–1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Iran's lone goal was scored by Reza Ghoochannejhad.[40] After the tournament, Queiroz declared he would resign as manager of Iran, but later switched and extended his contract until the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[41]

With the second highest number of fans in the tournament after hosts Australia, the Iranians defeated Bahrain 2–0 with limited preparations.[44][45] A defensive minded Iran then defeated Persian GulfCup champions Qatar 1–0 thanks to a Sardar Azmoun goal before defeating the UAE by the same scoreline to reach the top of their group.[46][47]

The 3–1 defeat to Bahrain came as a surprise. This in turn brought upon Iran's failure to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. There were allegations that the authorities pressured the players to lose. It was later denied by Mohsen Safaei Farahani, then president of the IFF.[56][unreliable source?] Nevertheless, to this day, many fans of 'Team Melli' continue to speculate whether the defeat was of legitimate causes or whether some authorities behind the scenes had brought about the defeat on purpose in order to prevent celebrations in the streets.[citation needed]

The Iranian national team has received several nicknames by supporters and media. The most common one used is "Team Melli", which literally means "The National Team". Iranians call any national team from any country or sport a "Team Melli" and because of this it has become common for the national team to be referred to as the "Team Melli Iran" or, more specifically in the case of the national football team, the "Team Melli e Football e Iran". Although the Iranian supporters have popularized "Team Melli", other nicknames for the team include "Persian Stars"[68][69][70] (entitled since the World Cup 2006) "Shiran e Iran",[71][72] meaning "The Iranian Lions" or "The Lions of Persia",[73]"Shirdelan", "Lion Hearts" and "Princes of Persia"[74][75] (used since AFC Asian Cup 2011)[76][77] have been used in media as well.[citation needed] Iran's slogan for the 2014 FIFA World Cup was Honour of Persia, selected in an internet poll held by FIFA.[78][79] A recently used nickname, due to the presence of the Asiatic cheetah on the 2014 World Cup jersey, is 'The Cheetahs'from 2014 in iran called yoozpalangan.[80]

Iran and South Korea are sporting rivals[81][82] and have played against each other officially since 1958, totally 29 matches as of October 2016, including eight World Cup qualifiers. These two teams were among the strongest Asian national football teams during the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the teams have developed one of Asia's greatest rivalries.[83] Although the teams only had one chance to play against each other in the final match of the AFC Asian Cup, in 1972, they faced each other five consecutive times at the quarterfinals stage from 1996–2011.[84][85] Iran leads the series with 13 wins, 7 draws and 9 losses.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are rivals.[86] The game has been ranked 9th in Bleacher Report's "International Football's 10 Most Politically-Charged Football Rivalries"[87] and 8th in Goal.com's "Football's 10 Greatest International Rivalries".[88]

Iran and Saudi Arabia have had 15 matches so far. All of their matches have been competitive and they have never played a friendly match. The first match was played on 24 August 1975, with Iran defeating Saudi Arabia 3–0. Iran leads the series with 5 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses.

According to the Malay Mail, "Emotions are always high when Iran and Iraq meet on the football pitch". The rivalry is not such a football-inspired ill-feeling between the two, but more of geography, religion and history. Iran and Iraq are neighboring countries, sharing a long history. In the contemporary era, especially during the reign of Saddam Hussein, the two countries had bad relations and fought the Iran–Iraq War for 8 years. In 2001, for the first time in decades, an Iran-Iraq match was not held at a neutral venue. Iran leads the series with 14 wins, 7 draws and 4 losses.